


Memory

by herworship429



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Apparently trees can talk, Force-Sensitive Poe Dameron, Gen, Making up my own Force Lore, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoilers, This is kind of a weird one, vague romantic notions if you squint real hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 03:46:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13355832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herworship429/pseuds/herworship429
Summary: "What the guardian protects, the Dark One would destroy. Jedi must remember. Or future is lost."Or the one where they go exploring some haunted temple ruins and discover that Luke left something important behind.





	Memory

**Author's Note:**

> There be spoilers ahead, and also this delves into Shattered Empire stuff, and generally Poe's backstory kind of stuff. A tiny, tiny bit from the Cobalt Squadron book (really, literally just the one line talks about it). Not really spoilers, I guess, but if you're confused, you might what to read some of those comics, I'm just saying.
> 
> More importantly... can Force-sensitive trees talk? I have no idea! But now they do! (to Rey, anyway). Also, Poe is totally slightly Force-sensitive in this, possibly due to proximity to the aforementioned talking trees, or possibly not, it's hard to say. Whatever. I hope you enjoy.

 

* * *

 

 

                “There’s really nothing left.”

                Rose’s voice, full of a hollow sort of sadness, broke the silence. She had no connection, really, to this place; this broken ruin, charred and still smoking in some places, as if the ghosts of the horrors that had happened here would keep the fires of that night burning forever. Maybe it would. Or maybe it was just the particular combination of chemicals native to this atmosphere. Who could really say for sure?

                The mechanic glanced towards Rey, who wore the most haunted, unsure expression she’d ever seen.

                “I can still hear them screaming,” she said quietly, a tear winding its way through the thin layer of ash that had settled on her face.

                “This is…” Finn, who had witnessed Kylo Ren’s ruthlessness firsthand… even he was shocked by the sight. Rey glanced back at the Falcon, sitting in the distance on a low ridge above the valley where the temple had been situated. She could make out Leia’s figure, cloaked in grey, and Chewbacca, a brown blur at this distance. She had seen the General’s face when they’d landed. She hadn’t been here, not since well before this atrocity, but even as she was taken aback, there was a tired sort of resignation there too, a grim acknowledgement that she had been expecting something terrible.

                Poe had yet to say a word; Rey hadn’t known him long, but she had quickly come to learn that this was unusual. He’d volunteered to stay with Leia and the others on the Falcon, but the General had quietly, firmly shaken her head.

                “This is something you should see too.”

                He hadn’t asked why she was so insistent on the matter, but that might have had more to do with Maz, who’d stood glowering at him from just behind Leia and making a shooing motion. Rey didn’t know why, but she was possessed of the idea that, for some reason, he was dreading this more than she was.

                They passed the crumbled hut Rey knew had once belonged to Ben Solo, where Luke had been buried and left for dead, and then made their way across the valley floor towards the ruins of the main complex at its center. Boots crunched over dry grass, and charred wood, and bone; the only other sounds, aside from Rose or Finn occasionally making a remark about the scenery, were distant calls of birds. They seemed to avoid this area, though Rey noticed a white bird with green markings hovering at the edge of the forest. It almost seemed to be watching them.

                “They had no warning,” Finn knelt down as they entered the main complex, picking out what looked like a child’s doll from the wreckage of a building to the left. Rey wondered if it had belonged to a student, or a visitor.

                They split up, Finn and Rose making their way towards what seemed to be the storage buildings. Rey had forgotten that they had come hoping to find caches of weapons or supplies that might have escaped the barrage. Luke had built his new temple in the remains of a very old one, and the locals still honored the Jedi. According to Leia, they had been all too willing to help when he’d come to set up, and even offered up guards from the small local militia, most of whom were slaughtered that night along with the rest of Luke’s students. But they had kept weapons and rations in some of the outbuildings, in case they were unable to get back to the village before an attack.

                “You can go with them, if you like,” Rey realized as soon as she said them that her words had sounded like a dismissal. Lucky for her Poe was either too distracted or too much of a gentleman to be offended.

                “If you don’t mind, I’ll stick with you,” he finally answered, “This place gives me the creeps.”

                “What does that mean?” she asked as they continued their wandering through the maze of courtyards and rooms. He shrugged.

                “It’s a thing people say, when they’re… unnerved, I guess,” he had fallen into the habit of explaining some of those “things people do” to her; she’d have taken offense if it had been anyone else, but Poe always explained them as if it was just a matter of course. No judgement, not even a sideways glance. The most he’d ever let slip was an amused grin every now and then, but she had since learned that Poe Dameron didn’t seem to have a malicious bone in his body. Now, though, he just seemed uncomfortable at the whole situation.

                As they moved through the complex, she began trying to make out functions of each room: they passed meditation rooms full of small, round chairs with rotted cushions, small rooms with bunks that were obviously sleeping quarters, even a larger set of chambers that boasted its own ‘fresher. She stopped in the doorway and looked for any sign of Luke, any indication that this might have once been his home.

                “There’s a Mess,” Poe pointed out a larger room with long tables and a food preparation area attached to it. They found some ration packs not unlike the ones that Rey had once worked so hard for just a portion of; she nearly reached for the bag she’d always worn at her hip before she remembered that she no longer carried it. A glance around proved that the embarrassment that welled up at the impulse was unwarranted, as Poe wasn’t paying much attention to what she was doing, and likely wouldn’t have cared if he was. He was pacing the room, the fingers of his right hand curled around the grip of his blaster, the others dancing an agitated rhythm against his thigh.

                “We can use these,” Rey picked up one of the ration packs and examined it, checking for signs of animals or weather ruining it and finding none, “They aren’t tasty, but it’s better than running out of food. Poe?”

                “Yeah,” he had moved towards the door, still jumpy and distracted, “Yeah, we’ll let the others know.”

                “Are you alright?” she finally asked.  

                “You don’t feel that?” he looked back at her suddenly, rolling his shoulders in agitation. He’d stopped drumming his left hand on his leg and now had pulled the chain he wore under his shirt out, fiddling with whatever hung on the end of it, “It’s like… there’s something _wrong_ , but I don’t know-”

                She followed him outside, into a large courtyard. It had to be the center of the complex, overgrown with weeds and vines; Rey was immediately met with impressions of young Jedi training here, though the feelings were hazy and layered, and some of them didn’t seem to be _here_ at all. The same green-and-white bird from earlier flew around the courtyard, finally settling at its center, where a large, shallow pool that was mostly dry lay, and in the center of that a tree. The bird perched among the higher branches, cooing softly. Rey remembered Rose showing her some of her old holos of animals from across the galaxy, the ones she used to look at with her sister; she thought the bird was called a convor, and according to Rose, they were a sign of good luck. Rey wasn't so sure.

                The tree was withered and dry; its branches were charred, its trunk rippled with deep, angry gashes that could only be from a lightsaber. He hadn’t cut it in half, but somehow that was worse. Somehow, it was as if he had meant to mutilate the tree, and had left it for dead just as he had Luke.

                But it wasn’t dead, not just yet; more, it was almost self-aware in the Force. It was almost as if it was speaking to her.

                Rey heard a choked sob to her left, but it wasn’t until she saw him crossing the pond and dropping to his knees in front of the tree that she realized it was Poe who had made it. _This_ was what he had meant, Rey realized, this wrongness he had felt was coming from this poor, dying tree, and while it had called out into the Force, it hadn’t been calling for _her_.

                It didn’t speak in words, not exactly. It was more impressions, or images. A man and a woman standing over a newly planted sapling in a wild jungle somewhere far from here, hand-in-hand; the same woman sitting at the base of the tree, a small boy cradled in her lap; the boy, a little older now, standing with the man, both wearing ill-fitting, too-nice clothes and expressions of absolute misery; the boy again, trying to pat at flames, a pile of twisted machinery behind him, looking terrified and unsure; the boy sitting where his mother once had, carefully pouring water over the tree’s roots, talking and singing to it…

                One word materialized in her mind, the speaker a strange, echoing voice she had never heard before.

_Guardian._

                “Poe?” she said softly, sinking to her knees beside him. He was running his hands along the charred trunk, as if trying to find a way to stitch it back together again.

                “It’s not right,” he said finally, his voice unsteady, “Why would he do this?”

                “He wanted to destroy the temple,” she shrugged helplessly, “This tree must’ve been important to Luke.”

_Jedi?_

                The same voice asked her suddenly.

_T_ _ell the boy._

                “The boy? Who is the boy? Tell him what?” Rey murmured aloud, closing her eyes. Poe looked at her questioningly. He started to say something, but she held up a finger for him to be quiet.

_We watch over the younglings. Watch them grow, watch them change._

_Watch darkness come. Fire… Always fire._

_I was one, then two._

_Taken away. Strange place._

_Found again. New Jedi. New home. Twin homes. I was one, then two._

_Soon one again._

                “It's the tree... it was in the old temple. It… watched over the young Jedi as they trained,” Rey translated the tree’s strange language of words and impressions and visions haltingly, “It was destroyed, I think? But two saplings… cuttings of the old tree, they survived. They were kept somewhere for years… and then they were rescued. Luke found them. He brought this one here. The other…”

                She paused and opened her eyes. Poe was staring at the tree.

                “He gave it to the Rebel pilot who escorted him on the mission,” he said after a moment, his voice heavy, “Who brought it with her to her new home, and planted it in the jungle, where it watched over her son. Even after she was gone.”

                “You’re the boy. It knows you because the other tree does,” she realized, not entirely aware that her hand had found his until she realized how hard he was squeezing it, “It calls you _guardian_.”

_What the guardian protects, the Dark One would destroy. Jedi must remember._

Rey blinked, “I… I don’t…”

 _Time was lost. Jedi lost. But we remember. Protect us. Keep us safe. Darkness is coming again. Light must rise. Jedi_ must _remember. Or future is lost._

                “What?” she was the one squeezing Poe’s hand now, and her distress must have showed on her face, “Rey? What’s wrong?”

                His other hand was on her shoulder now, and suddenly there was another vision, one that made no sense to her at all. The same tree, the one in the jungle, the twin who still lived; it glowed almost silver-white, and at its base, a boy and a girl played, levitating rocks and skipping them across a nearby pond. The tree sang out in the Force with joy. A voice called them in, but Rey couldn’t see-

 _Remember. Or future is lost_.

                “Rey!”

                She opened her eyes and realized she’d collapsed or feinted. Poe had caught her, of course; it might have been less mortifying had Rose and Finn not chosen that moment to run into the courtyard, probably at the sound of him yelling her name.

                “It’s gone,” she said softly, reaching out a hand to touch the trunk. Poe sat back on his heels and nodded slowly.

                “I’m sorry,” she wiped at the tears she didn’t remember shedding, “I’m sorry, Poe.”

                “It’s not in pain anymore,” he pointed out with a sad sigh.

                “We have to protect the other one,” she stood up suddenly.

                “What are you talking about?” Finn looked back and forth between them, confusion written all over his face.

                “We’ll explain later,” Poe let Rey pull him to his feet, suddenly feeling less burdened than when they had landed. The ruins didn’t feel so haunted anymore.

                “Did you find anything?” Rey asked.

                “Not much,” Rose admitted, “But there are some things we can use. We already called for the others to come help us move it. Are you sure you two are okay?”

                Rey glanced at Poe and he smiled at her. She found herself inclined, strangely, to blush. Pushing the feeling aside, she nodded.

                “Yeah,” he agreed, before snapping his fingers, “We did find something useful. Ration packs in the mess. This way.”

                Rey watched him lead them back into the building with a smile, pausing to press a hand to the trunk of the tree one last time.

                “Don’t worry,” she said softly, almost to herself, “I’ll remember.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you indeed enjoyed, feel free to comment, or kudo, or don't, you know, whatever floats your X-Wing.


End file.
